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Memoir 


Wm.  0.  Baldwin,  M.D., 


Montgomery,  Ala. 


[Reprinted  from  "  Representative  Men  of  tlie  South."] 


PHILADELPHIA : 

CHARLES     ROBSON. 

iSSo. 


:b/? 


/>yL 


DR.  WM.  0.  BALDWIN. 

ALABAMA. 

"^  |ILLIAM  OWEN  BALDWIN  was  born,  August  9th, 
1818,  in  Montgomery  county,  Ala.,  about  four  miles 
from  the  capital  of  the  State.  At  that  time  Alabama 
had  only  recently  been  organized  as  a  Territory,  and 
was  not  admitted  into  the  Union  until  the  following 
year;  Montgomery,  an  old  Indian  town,  was  then  called 
"Alabama  town."  His  great-grandfather,  a  Virginian  by 
birth,  settled  in  North  Carolina,  where  he  married  Miss 
Owen,  after  whom  numerous  members  of  the  Baldwin  family 
have  been  named.  Some  years  after  his  marriage  he  removed 
to  Columbia  county,  Ga.,  where  he  raised  three  sons,  who 
took  part  with  their  father  in  the  Revolutionary  war,  and 
were  present  at  the  siege  of  Augusta,  Ga.  ;  the  eldest  son 
David  and  himself  returned  home  at  the  close  of  the  war 
and  died  shortly  afterwards.  Of  the  two  remaining  sons, 
Owen  married  Miss  Wiley,  and  many  of  his  descendants  are 
now  resident  in  Mississippi  ;  and  William,  who  was  born  in 
North  Carolina,  became  a  planter  in  Georgia,  married  Miss 
Elizabeth  Kimbro,  of  that  State,  and  was  the  grandfather  of 
the  subject  of  this  sketch.  Judge  Abraham  Baldwin,  one  of 
the  signers  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  was  a 
relative  of  his.  William  Baldwin,  son  of  the  preceding  and 
father  of  Dr.  Baldwin,  was  born  in  Georgia,  and  married 
Miss  Cecilia  Fitzpatrick,  of  Georgia,  whose  father  was  a 
member  of  the  Georgia  Legislature  for  nineteen  consecutive 
years,  and  left  nine  children,  of  whom  the  eldest,  Cecilia, 
was  the  only  daughter,  and  the  youngest,  Benjamin  Fitzpat- 
rick, was  afterwards  Governor  of  Alabama,  and  subsequently 

(3) 

550619 


—  4  — 

United  States  Senator,  which  position  he  resigned  when  Ala- 
bama passed  the  ordinance  of  secession.  William  Baldwin's 
eldest  son,  Marion  Augustus  Baldwin,  was  born  in  Georgia, 
and  removed  with  his  parents  into  Alabama  in  iSi6;  he  was 
Attorney-General  of  Alabama  from  1847  to  1865,  and  one 
of  the  ablest  lawyers  as  well  as  the  most  popular  man  in  the 
State.  His  father  died  when  Dr.  Baldwin  was  nine  years  of 
age,  leaving  his  widow  with  seven  children,  of  whom  he  was 
the  second  son ;  he  received  his  education  at  an  academy  in 
Montgomery  county,  near  his  mother's  plantation,  conducted 
by  Adison  H.  Sample,  a  man  of  great  reputation  in  his  day, 
a  splendid  linguist  and  a  finished  scholar.  At  sixteen  he 
commenced  to  read  medicine  in  the  office  of  Dr.  McLeod, 
the  leading  physician  in  Montgomery,  and  shortly  afterwards 
entered  the  Transylvania  University,  Lexington,  Ky.,  in 
which  institution  he  became  the  private  pupil  of  Dr.  Charles 
Caldwell  and  Dr.  L.  P.  Yandell,  then  in  conjunction  with 
the  eminent  surgeon  and  lithotomist.  Dr.  B.  W.  Dudley,  pro- 
fessors in  that  university.  At  the  unprecedented  age  of 
eighteen,  he  received  his  degree  of  M.  D.,  a  fact  much 
regretted  in  after  life  when  the  importance  of  more  extended 
study  was  more  vividly  realized. 

Some  years  afterwards,  disagreements  having  arisen  between 
the  members  of  the  faculty,  the  professors,  with  but  few  excep- 
tions, resigned  and  established  the  Medical  Department  of 
the  University  of  Louisville,  and  the  Transylvania  University 
became  extinct.  His  mother  having  so  large  a  family  t-o  raise 
unaided,  was  somewhat  cramped  in  her  resources,  and  found 
it  impossible  to  give  more  than  one  of  her  sons  a  university 
education,  and  to  that  the  elder  brother  was  naturally  enti- 
tled. William,  however,  had  all  but  completed  his  arrange- 
ments to  enter  the  University  of  Virginia,  when  the  want  of 
adequate  means  interposed  an  obstacle  which  it  was  impos- 
sible to  overcome.  In  1837  he  commenced  the  practice  of 
his  profession  in  Montgomery,  and  in  1840  entered  into 
partnership  with  his  former  preceptor,  Dr.  McLeod,  who  died 
tvvelve  months  afterwards.  Becoming  on  intimate  terms  with 
the  distinguished  Professor  of  Obstetrics,  Dr.  William  M. 
Boling,   a   strong   personal   attachment   sprung   up   between 


them,  and  after  occupying  the  same  office  for  some  years, 
they  formed  a  professional  copartnership  in  1848,  which  con- 
tinued in  force  for  four  years,  when  their  practice  became  so 
extensive  that  it  was  deemed  best  for  their  individual  pecu- 
niary interests,  in  the  matter  of  consultations,  etc.,  to  sepa- 
rate, and  the  partnership  was  accordingly  dissolved.  Dr. 
Boling  was  a  man  of  great  learning,  and  perhaps  of  more 
sterling  merit  than  any  Alabama  has  produced.  Dr.  Baldwin 
and  himself  studied  and  labored  together  for  eleven  years  for 
the  advancement  of  science,  and  he  afterwards  became  Pro- 
fessor in  Transylvania  University,  and  subsequently  at  Mem- 
phis. At  his  death,  in  1859,  ^^-  Baldwin  delivered  a  touch- 
ing eulogy  over  the  grave  of  this  noble  and  erudite  physician. 
In  April,  1847,  l^^'-  Baldwin  contributed  to  the  Amc?-ica?i 
Jounial  of  the  Medical  Sciences  some  "  Observations  on  the 
Poisonous  Properties  of  the  Sulphate  of  Quinine."  This 
paper,  which  contributed  perhaps  more  to  his  reputation 
than  any  article  he  ever  wrote,  created  great  attention,  and 
was  translated  into  several  foreign  languages,  and  is  quoted 
as  an  authority  not  only  in  the  English  and  French  periodi- 
cals and  their  standard  works  on  toxicology,  but  also  in  the 
United  States  Dispensary  and  the  medico-legal  works  of  this 
country.  After  reporting  a  case  in  which  convulsions,  blind- 
ness and  death  followed  the  use  of  sulphate  of  quinine;  and 
another  in  which  the  symptoms  which  succeeded  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  quinine  bore  a  striking  analogy  to  the  first, 
although  death  was  not  the  result,  he  records  numerous 
experiments  made  upon  dogs,  which  are  affected  by  poisons 
exactly  in  the  same  way  as  human  beings.  Admitting  that, 
under  careful  and  proper  administration,  no  single  remedy  is 
half  so  valuable  to  the  practitioner  as  that  of  quinine,  he 
pi'oves  conclusively  that  when  given  in  over-doses,  it  is  capa- 
ble of  producing  death.  In  December,  1849,  ^^^  delivered 
an  address  before  the  Alabama  State  Medical  Association, 
over  which  body  he  afterwards  presided,  entitled:  "Physic 
and  Physicians."  The  range  of  the  discussion  is  over  a  wide 
and  fruitful  field,  embracing  the  intellectual,  mornl,  social 
and  professional  position  of  physicians,  and  the  beneficial 
relations  of  their  science  to  the  welfare  of  mankind.     It  is 


a  manly  and  fearless  defence  of  medical  science  from  quacks 
and  empirics  of  every  description,  and  abounds  in  argument, 
apt  illustrations  and  eloquent  appeals  in  behalf  of  the  dignity 
and  claims  of  the  medical  profession.  To  Homoeopathy  par- 
ticular attention  is  paid,  and  considerable  space  is  devoted 
to  the  exposure  of  its  heresies  and  humbugs,  but  withal  in  a 
dignified  and  manly  tone.  He  is  mercilessly  severe  on  dis- 
honorable, unworthy  or  mercenary  conduct  on  the  part  of  the 
orthodox  members  of  the  profession,  and  handles  empirics 
and  empiricism  of  all  sorts  "  without  gloves."  This  address, 
although  the  first  delivered  in  public  by  its  author,  was  re- 
ceived with  such  marked  favor  by  the  members  that  it  was 
printed  by  order  of  the  association  for  general  circulation, 
and  reviewed  in  the  most  complimentary  terms  by  the  medical 
journals  and  newspaper  press.  After  dissolving  partnership 
with  Dr.  Boling,  Dr.  Baldwin  conducted  the  largest  and 
most  lucrative  practice  in  Montgomery,  reaching  $15,000  per 
annum,  a  very  unusual  income  for  a  city  of  its  size.  During 
the  civil  war  he  still  continued  his  practice,  declining  repeated 
offers  of  commissions  in  the  Confederate  service,  although  he 
was  frequently  present  on  the  field  after  the  action  attending 
the  wounded  as  a  volunteer  surgeon.  His  eldest  son,  William 
Owen  Baldwin,  left  the  State  University  at  Tuscaloosa,  against 
his  father's  will,  to  join  the  army,  and  while  Captain  of  the 
twenty-second  Alabama — endeared  to  his  comrades  as  the 
"boy-captain"  of  Deas'  brigade — was  killed  at  Franklin, 
Tenn.,  aged  only  nineteen  years.  The  war  over,  Dr.  Bald- 
win used  his  utmost  endeavors  to  bring  about  a  pacification 
between  the  two  sections  so  bitterly  estranged.  During  the 
terrible  strife  the  members  of  the  American  Medical  Associa- 
tion at  their  various  meetings  had  rep  atedly  deplored  the 
absence  of  their  Southern  brethren,  and  looked  forward  to 
the  time  when  ihey  would  be  again  "one  in  their  political, 
professional  and  social  relations."  At  the  annual  meeting 
held  in  Washington,  D.  C,  in  1868,  the  first  since  the 
beginning  of  the  war  at  which  delegates  from  the  South  had 
been  present,  only  seven  representatives  from  the  Southern 
States  attended  out  of  an  assemblage  of  about  500  members. 
Dr.  W.  O.  Baldwin  was  elected  President  as  an  evidence  of 


the  earnest  wish  of  the  association  to  hold  out  the  right 
hand  of  fellowship  to  those  so  long  estranged.  Contrary  to 
usual  custom  the  President  elect  delivered  a  short  address 
from  the  chair,  which,  from  the  admirable  spirit  in  which  it 
was  conceived,  and  the  pathetic  yet  manly  manner  in  which 
it  was  delivered,  touched  to  the  quick  the  hearts  of  those 
present,  and  drew  forth  unqualified  eulogium  from  men  of 
all  shades  of  opinion.     He  said : 

"Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  the  American  Medical 
Association :  In  returning  you  my  sincere  thanks  for  the 
honor  you  have  conferred  upon  me  in  electing  me  to  preside 
over  the  deliberations  of  this  body — an  association  which 
embraces  in  its  relationship  so  many  names  justly  dis- 
tinguished over  the  civilized  world  for  genius  and  learning — 
believe  me,  gentlemen,  it  is  with  feelings  of  embarrassment 
equalled  only  by  my  profound  sense  of  gratitude  and  my  ad- 
miration for  the  magnanimity  which  prompted  the  offering. 
It  is  the  more  grateful  to  me  that  it  was  the  free,  unasked-for 
gift  of  the  association.  I  did  not  seek  the  position.  High 
as  the  honor  is,  I  should  deem  it  purchased  at  too  dear  a  price 
if,  in  order  to  obtain  it,  it  had  been  necessary  for  me  to 
solicit  the  votes  of  any  men  from  any  section,  even  those 
from  my  own  society.  I  am  painfully  conscious,  gentlemen, 
of  my  own  unworthiness  of  this  high  distinction,  and  am 
not  vain  enough  to  appropriate  the  honor  all  to  myself.  I 
do  not  accept  it  as  an  individual  compliment,  but  rather  as 
the  faithful  hand  of  brotherhood  stretched  out  with  a  gener- 
ous friendship  and  true  nobility  of  soul  in  its  desire  to  heal 
and  obliterate  the  wounds  in  its  own  bosom  for  whose  crea- 
tion it  was  in  no  way  responsible.  Pardon  me  for  taking  this 
opportunity  for  alluding  briefly  to  a  subject  which  has  not 
perhaps  heretofore  been  considered  germaine  to  occasions  like 
the  present,  and  which  I  now  approach  with  both  pain  and 
hesitation.  I  am  sure  that  most  of  you  have  not  failed  to  ob- 
serve the  very  meagre  representation  which  the  association 
has  had  from  the  Soutliern  States  since  the  close  of  the  late 
war.  This  has  probably  been  due  to  several  causes,  to  only 
one  of  which,  however,  I  desire  to  allude.  I  will  not  dis- 
guise from    you,   gentlemen,   the   fact    that   there  are   many 


—  8  — 

physicians  in  the  South  disposed  to  hold  themselves  aloof 
from  your  councils.  The  resolution  passed  at  your  meeting 
in  1866,  offering  again  the  hand  of  fellowship  to  your  South- 
ern brethren,  owing  to  the  peculiar  condition  of  our  country 
at  that  time  and  the  fact  that  but  little  of  the  medical  litera- 
ture and  news  of  the  North  circulated  with  us,  met  the  eyes 
but  of  few,  and  there  are  still  among  us  those  who  feel  that 
your  hearts  are  yet  steeled  against  them,  and  who  believe  that, 
notwithstanding  some  formal  declarations  to  the  contrary, 
most  of  you,  in  your  private  feelings,  have  not  yet  been  able 
to  rise  sufficiently  above  the  prejudices  of  the  past  to  enable 
you  to  receive  them  in  such  a  manner  as  to  make  their  pres- 
ence here  either  agreeable  to  them  or  profitable  to  the  associa- 
tion. Looking  to  this  conviction  of  theirs,  strengthened  by 
the  fact  they  are  still  under  the  cloud  of  the  nation's  dis- 
pleasure, and  denied  the  political  rights  to  which  they  esteem 
themselves  entitled,  they  have  felt  that  it  Avould  be  both  un- 
dignified and  unmanly  to  present  themselves  at  your  doors 
for  admittance  to  your  councils,  or  to  off"er  to  affiliate  with 
you  until  they  can  come  as  your  peers  in  all  things — in  politi- 
cal and  social  rights,  as  well  as  in  scientific  zeal  and  devo- 
tion. So  far  as  my  observation  has  extended,  I  am  sorry  to 
know  these  sentiments  have  prevailed  with  many,  and  it  is 
but  frankness  in  me  to  say  so.  I  am  free  to  confess  that  I, 
with  many  others,  have  not  sympathized  altogether  with  these 
feelings.  I  saw  the  resolution  adopted  in  1866,  and  before  re- 
ferred to,  inviting  us  in  most  respectful  and  conciliatory  lan- 
guage to  resume  our  places  in  this  association.  I  felt  this  was 
all  you  could  do,  all  you  ought  to  do,  all  we  could  ask,  and 
was  satisfied  with  it,  and  only  regret  it  did  not  obtain  a  more 
general  circulation.  The  society  to  which  I  belong,  with 
entire  unanimity,  appointed  its  full  quota  of  delegates  to  this 
meeting.  I  came  here  to  lend  my  humble  example  to  the 
work  of  re-establishing  our  former  relations.  I  never  doubted 
I  would  be  received  with  courtesy  and  even  with  kindness. 
The  broad,  liberal,  and  catholic  sentiments  proclaimed  from 
this  stand  in  the  annual  address  of  that  noble  old  Roman, 
our  distinguished  President,  Dr.  Gross,  knowing  in  these 
halls  'no  North,  no    South,  no  East,  no  West' — he  whose 


—  9  — 

clustering  honorr,  though  won  in  your  midst,  yet  gather  a 
beauty  and  brilliancy  from  the  love  and  veneration  in  which 
he  is  held  in  the  South — must  be  received  as  a  declaration  of 
sentiments  and  principles  by  this  association,  and  cannot  fail 
to  correct  the  errors  and  misrepresentations  which  have  pre- 
vailed in  our  section.  This  action  of  yours  to-day,  in  award- 
ing through  me  as  one  of  her  humble  representatives,  the  hon- 
orable and  distinguished  office  of  President  of  this  Association, 
a  position  which  might  well  be  claimed  for  one  of  the  many 
of  your  own  renowned  and  gifted  sons,  will,  I  am  sure,  tes- 
tify to  our  brethren  of  the  South,  in  silent  but  forcible  lan- 
guage, the  injustice  which  has  been  done  you  by  those  wlio 
have  taken  a  different  view  of  your  real  sentiments  and  feel- 
ings towards  us.  In  saying  this  much,  I  do  not  intend  it  as 
a  reproach  to  those  of  my  section  who  have  hitherto  so  mis- 
understood you;  and  you  in  your  generosity  I  am  sure  are 
prepared  to  concede  much  to  the  pride  of  a  noble  manhood, 
who,  standing  amidst  the  memories  of  blasted  hopes  and 
ruined  fortunes,  have  perhaps  been  disposed  to  guard  with 
too  jealous  and  sensitive  an  eye  that  which  is  dearer  to  them 
than  fortune  or  life  itself,  and  which  I  am  sure  you  would 
be  the  last  to  willingly  see  compromised — their  personal  and 
professional  dignity  and  honor.  For  myself  and  for  those  I 
represent  I  grasp  with  unaffected  pleasure  the  hand  which 
you  have  so  gracefully  and  magnanimously  offered,  and  I 
hope  and  believe  this  sentiment  will  meet  a  ready  response 
from  all  our  brethren  of  the  South.  Let  us  again  be  unifed  as 
friends  and  brothers.  Ignoring  past  and  present  political 
differences,  let  us  exhibit  to  this  distracted  country  an  ex- 
ample of  forgiveness  and  toleration  worthy  the  emulation  of 
a  great  and  noble  people.  Let  the  bonds  which  we  acknowl- 
edge here  bind  us  in  all  portions  of  this  broad  land  as  a  sacred 
brotherhood  engaged  in  a  common  toil,  with  one  mind,  one 
heart,  and  one  purpose.  Let  the  place  annually  selected  for 
our  meetings  be  our  Mecca.  There  let  us  meet  with  harmony 
of  sentiment  for  thorough  organization,  for  connected  and 
concerted  action,  without  which  no  great  science  or  art  can 
ever  attain  its  highest  perfection.  Exacting  from  each  other 
only  the  qualifications  necessary  for  honorable  membership, 


let  us  there  mingle  in  the  sacred  precincts  of  our  humane 
profession,  and  join  hands  and  sympathies  in  the  strengthen- 
ing influences  of  association  and  fellowship ;  and,  as  we  lay- 
fresh  offerings  in  the  temple  of  a  noble  science  and  build 
new  fires  on  her  altars,  let  us  cherish  in  our  hearts  the  ennob- 
ling sentiment  of  brotherly  love.  In  conclusion  I  would  say 
we  have  doubtless  most  of  us — aye,  certainly,  most  of  us  in  the 
land  of  many  sorrows  from  whence  I  come — tasted  the  bitter 
fruits  of  the  bloody  and  unholy  war  through  which  we  have 
passed  and  wept  over  its  dire  calamities.  We,  as  an  associa- 
tion, had  no  agency  in  its  creation.  It  belongs  now  with  all 
its  disasters  and  miseries  to  the  dead  past,  and,  as  we  had  no 
cause  for  quarrel  then,  we  have  none  now  for  separation  or 
estrangement.  We  may  not  forget  our  sorrows  for  the  past, 
and  we  will  still  water  with  our  most  sacred  tears  the  graves 
of  our  noble  sons  who  fell  victims  to  the  strife.  But,  when- 
ever there  is  grief  at  the  heart,  a  tear  for  the  ashes  of  .the 
past,  let  us  wipe  from  it  all  traces  of  bitterness,  and  drape  its 
memories,  and  sanctify  its  sadness  with  the  manly  and  Chris- 
tian virtues  of  charity,  forgiveness,  and  fraternal  love." 

This  speech  was  copied  into  the  public  journals  of  every  sec- 
tion of  the  country  with  but  one  expression  of  the  strongest 
approbation  for  his  patriotic  endeavor  to  heal  the  wounds  of 
fraternal  strife,  and  enable  both  North  and  South  without 
loss  of  self-respect  to  shake  hands  over  the  bloody  chasm 
and  bury  forever  the  bitter  past.  A  well-known  literary  gen- 
tleman ivho  was  present — the  Nestor  of  the  medical  literary 
world — meeting  Dr.  Baldwin  afterwards  asked  to  shake  him 
by  the  hand,  and  said,  "Your  speech  has  done  more  and  will 
do  more  towards  reconciling  tlie  different  sections  than  all 
the  resolutions  and  reconstruction  acts  introduced,  or  speeches 
made  in  Congress  since  the  war." 

Previous  to  the  annual  meeting  of  the  American  Medical 
Association,  held  in  New  Orleans,  in  May,  1869,  Dr.  Bald- 
win, being  desirous  of  securing  a  full  attendance  of  the  pro- 
fession from  all  sections,  addressed  a  letter  to  Dr.  J.  C. 
Nott,  of  New  York,  formerly  of  Mobile,  in  which  he  fully 
explained  the  sentiments  of  Southern  physicians  in  regard 
to  the  association,  and  in  return  asked  from  Dr.  Nott  full  in- 


formation  as  to  the  feelings  actuating  the  profession  in  the 
North.  This  correspondence  was  forwarded  to  Dr.  E.  S. 
Gaillard,  Editor  of  the  Richmond  and  Louisville  Medical 
Journal,  with  a  request  for  its  publication,  and  is  as  follows : 

[Letter   i.] 
"Montgomery,  Ala.,  March  15//?,  1869. 
"Dr.  E.  S.  Gaillard, 

"  Editor  Richmond  and  Louisville  Medical  Journal : 
"My  Dear  Sir:  I  send  you  this  letter  and  the  enclosed 
correspondence  between  Dr.  J.  C.  Nott  and  myself,  for  pub- 
lication in  your  journal.  You  must  pardon  me,  dear  doctor, 
for  the  personal  allusion  contained  in  this  correspondence  to 
yourself  From  the  fact  that  you  were  an  active  participant 
in  the  late  war  and  suffered  deeply  by  its  results,  and  from 
the  additional  fact  that  you  have  occupied  a  prominent  posi- 
tion in  the  medical  profession  before  and  since  the  war,  I 
thought  I  might  take  the  liberty  of  referring  to  you  as  a 
true  representative  of  the  professional  sentiment  of  the  South. 
For  the  same  reason  I  addressed  a  communication  to  Dr. 
Nott  (formerly  of  Mobile,  now  of  New  York),  who,  it  is 
well  known,  was  a  stsmnch  adherent  of  the  Confederate 
cause ;  who,  at  the  advanced  age  of  sixty  years,  gave  up  his 
professorship  in  a  college  to  which  he  was  devoted  and  of 
which  he  was  the  founder  ;  relinquished  his  large  and  lucra- 
tive practice  and  neglected  his  then  ample  fortune  to  take  a 
commission  in  the  army  of  the  South ;  serving  in  hospitals, 
in  camp,  on  the  march,  in  the  front  or  wherever  he  was 
ordered,  with  all  the  devotion  and  faithfulness  of  his  enthu- 
siastic and  honest  nature.  He  had  but  three  children,  all 
sons ;  one  lost  an  arm  in  infancy ;  the  others,  promising  in 
a  ripening  manhood  all  that  a  father's  heart  could  desire ; 
both  of  these  went  to  the  field  at  the  first  call  for  troops 
and  both  perished  in  the  army.  When  such  men  as  yourself 
and  Nott,  from  the  medical  profession,  and  General  Wade 
Hampton,  from  the  head  and  front  of  the  army  — all  repre- 
sefitative  men — men  who  have,  in  the  time  of  her  greatest 
need,  rendered  distinguished  services  to  the  South,  who  have 
been   torn  and  mutilated  in  person,  lacerated  and  crushed 


in  affections,  wrecked  and  ruined  in  fortune,  can  take  the 
proffered  hand  of  friendship  and  urge  conciliation,  harmony 
and  fraternization  for  the  good  of  science  and  the  welfare  of 
the  country,  I  think  the  personal  allusion  which  I  have  made 
to  you  is  pardonable,  while  it  should  put  to  the  blush  those 
few  'who  still  urge  discord  and  alienation.'  I  do  not  think 
that  a  charge  of  egotism  could  lie  against  you  in  consequence 
of  your  publishing  what  I  think  or  say  of  you.  In  justice  to 
me  you  cannot  omit  the  reference  to  you,  for  by  so  doing, 
you  would  manifestly  defeat  one  object  of  the  letter.  I  have 
seen  proper  to  use  your  name  as  a  representative  man,  and  in 
a  manner  to  serve  a  purpose  which  is  obvious  throughout  the 
letter,  and  \\\Qfaets  -warrant  the  allusion. 

•'  I  am,  dear  doctor,  very  sincerely  yours, 

"W.  O.  Baldwin,  M.  D." 

[Letter  2.] 

"  Montgomery,  Ala.,  March  2d,  1869. 
"  Dr.  J.  C.  NoTT,  New  York  : 

"  My  Dear  Doctor:  As  you  are  aware,  the  next  meeting 
of  the  American  Medical  Association  is  to  be  held  in  the 
city  of  New  Orleans,  on  the  first  Tuesday  in  May  next,  and 
I  write  to  urge  you  to  be  present  on  that  occasion.  Your 
numerous  old  friends  in  the  South  would  be  most  happy  to 
meet  you  there ;  to  shake  you  by  the  hand  in  this  fraternal 
reunion,  and  to  welcome  you  again  to  the  scenes  of  your 
morning  life.  It  must  be  gratifying  to  you  to  know,  my 
dear,  good  old  friend,  when,  in  your  solitary  moments, 
memory  sometimes  takes  you  back  to  the  home  of  your 
youth  (to  review  the  incidents  of  almost  a  life-time  spent  in 
active  and  arduous  professional  duties),  that  your  cotempora- 
ries  here,  who  witnessed  your  devotion  to  the  cause  of  science, 
whilst  they  appreciated  the  value  of  your  labors,  still  hold 
in  most  affectionate  remembrance  that  honorable  courtesy 
and  charity  which  ever  distinguished  your  conduct  towards 
your  professional  brothers.  I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  say,  my 
dear  doctor,  that  the  spirit  of  your  example  still  lives  with  us 
and,  I  believe,  will  teach  us  from  the  grave;  Avill  teach  those 
who  still  labor  in  the  fields  you  have  left,  when  life  with  you 


—  13  — 

shall  have  ended  its  hardest  lessons.     Nothing,  I  assure  you, 
would  give  me,  individually,  more  j^lcasure  than  to  see  your 
honest  face  on  that  occasion.     It  will  be  such  a  fitting  time 
for  you  to  meet  us,  and  one  which  will  probably  never  present 
itself  again,  when  you  could  see  so  many  of  your  old  friends. 
My  correspondence  has  been  somewhat  extensive  during  the 
past  eight  or  nine  months,  and   I  feel  justified   in  saying  that 
the  great  mass  of  the  profession  South  is  in  full  accord  and 
sympathy  with  the  association.     You  may  have  seen  some 
little  dissatisfaction  expressed  in  newspapers  over  a  iwm  de 
plume,  indicating  the  author  to  be  a  physician,  but  I  assure 
you  such  sentiments  are  confined  to  but  very  few  and  have 
failed   to  reach  the    great    heart   of   the  profession.     I  was 
grieved,  however,  to  see  even  this  manifestation  of  opposition 
to  the  great  representative  interests  of  the  medical  profession 
of  this  country.     It  has  no  root  and  can  bear  no  fruits  in 
science   or   general    beneficence.     This   dissatisfaction   grew 
out  of  the  action  of  the  association  at  its  meeting  in  1S64, 
in  relation  to  a  preamble  and  resolutions   introduced  by  Dr. 
A.  K.  Gardner,  of  New  York.     These  were,  in  fact,  a  re- 
monstrance against  the  war  ethics  of  the  government,  and, 
in   substance,   provided    that   the   President    of  the   United 
States,  heads  of  departments,  and  members  of  the   United 
States  Senate  be  requested  by  the  association  to  '  take  such 
action  as  shall  cause  all  medicines  and  medical  and  surgical 
instruments   and   appliances   to   be   excluded    from   the   list 
"called  contraband  of  war."*     The  action  taken  on  these 
resolutions  by  the  association  was  to  lay  them  on  the  table 
indefinitely,  and  which,  in  parliamentary  parlance,  I  believe, 
means  that  it  was  '  not  desirable  to  consider  them  '  at  that 
time.     From  this  action,  some  have  contended  that  the  asso- 
ciation lent  its  influence  and  support  to  sustain  the  govern- 
ment in  this  feature  of  its  ethics  of  war.     The  beautiful  pre- 
amble and  resolutions  referred  to,  as  having  been  introduced 
by  Dr.   Gardner,  are  certainly  a  most  graceful  proof  of  a 
noble  and  generous  mind,  and  must  be  regarded  by  all  as 
the  offspring  of  the  purest  and  most  unselfish  charity  and 
benevolence.      Yet  how  far  the  language  used   by  others  in 
commenting  upon  this  action  of  the  association  is  justified  by 


—  14  — 

the  facts ;  how  far  this  body  lent  its  influence  and  support 
to  the  government  in  the  policy  complained  of,  or  to  what 
extent  it  committed  itself  to  the  principle,  by  laying  these 
resolutions  on  the  table,  are  questions  which  may  very  well 
admit  of  differences  of  opinion.  No  member  can  claim  for 
the  association  exemption  from  fair,  frank,  and  honorable 
criticism,  and,  when  thus  conducted  amongst  ourselves,  or 
through  the  legitimate  channels  of  medical  periodicals,  wilh 
moderate  language  and  in  a  courteous  and  respectful  temper, 
I  can  see  no  objection  to  it,  and  think  it  may  in  the  end  lead 
to  harmony  of  sentiment  and  unity  of  purpose.  I  have  been 
particularly  grieved,  however,  to  see  that  some,  in  their  zeal 
to  discuss  the  points  above  referred  to,  have  resorted  to  the 
columns  of  newspapers  (devoted  to  common  and  general 
politics)  for  this  purpose.  The  public  feel  no  particular 
interest  in  controversies  like  this,  and,  in  the  language  of 
our  code  of  ethics,  'as  there  exists  numerous  points  in  medi- 
cal ethics  and  etiquette  through  which  the  feelings  of  medical 
men  may  be  painfully  assailed  in  their  intercourse  with  each 
other,  and  which  cannot  be  understood  or  appreciated  by 
general  society,  .  .  .  publicity  in  a  case  of  this  nature  may 
be  personally  injurious  to  the  individuals  concerned,  and 
can  hardly  fail  to  bring  discredit  upon  the  faculty.'  These 
injunctions,  though  applying  to  our  daily  intercourse  with 
each  other,  are  equally  applicable  to  us  in  our  associated  and 
general  relations.  I  am  not  prepared  to  say  what  the  usages 
of  modern  warfare  are  on  the  points  raised  in  Dr.  Gardner's 
resolutions,  or  whether  there  are  any  recognized  or  estab- 
lished ethics  among  civilized  nations  on  this  subject.  But 
that  it  is  in  accordance  with  the  purest  and  highest  dic- 
tates of  humanity  for  belligerent  powers  to  allow  the  enemy's 
sick  and  wounded  to  be  supplied  with  medicines  and  surgi- 
cal appliances  from  within  their  own  lines,  when  they  can- 
not be  otherwise  obtained,  I  think  none  will  deny,  unless 
the  supply  be  at  a  time  when  such  action  might  thwart 
the  movements  or  prejudice  the  safety  of  an  army.  And,  if 
the  duty  of  regulating  such  matters  had  been  assigned  to 
the  American  Medical  x\ssociation,  or  even  to  the  army  medi- 
cal corps,  and  they  had  established  or  advised  the  establish- 


—  15  — 

ment  of  an  ordinance  making  these  articles  contraband  of 
war,  I  should  feel  that  their  action  had  not  harmonized  with 
the  spirit  which  has  ever  characterized  the  conduct  of  our  pro- 
fession toward  suffering  humanity.  This,  liowever,  was  not 
the  case,  and  I  can  very  well  imagine  that  those  who  voted 
against  the  association  taking  the  action  urged  in  the  pream- 
ble and  resolutions  referred  to,  could  give  good  reasons 
which  influenced  them,  at  that  particular  time,  to  desire  no 
complication  with  their  government  upon  a  question,  in  the 
discussion  and  decision  of  which  they  were  regarded  as  in  no 
way  authoritative,  and  the  direction  of  which  had  been 
assumed  by  high  government  officials,  who  had  long  since 
established  and  practised  a  policy  in  reference  to  it.  I 
assume,  then,  the  broad  ground  that  it  was  a  question  with 
which  the  association  had  nothing  whatever  to  do,  and  one 
which  was  not  properly  before  it  for  discussion  ;  and,  it  seems 
to  me,  that  it  was  expecting  too  much  of  our  Northern  broth- 
ers to  suppose,  that  they,  at  a  time  when  all  the  sinews  of 
Avar  were  called  most  vigorously  into  execution,  would 
place  themselves  in  antagonism  to  their  government  upon  a 
question  which  was  entirely  outside  of  their  professional  posi- 
tion and  accredited  duties.  In  doing  so  they  certainly  would 
have  been  transcending  their  legitimate  sphere  and  meddling 
with  the  prerogatives  of  those  to  whom  the  regulation  of 
the  ethics  of  war  had  been  assigned,  and  who  claimed  exclu- 
sive jurisdiction  over  the  question.  Subjects  of  this  kind 
certainly  formed  no  part  in  the  plan  of  their  organization. 
They  were  there  solely  for  the  purpose  of  discussing  ques- 
tions purely  scientific  and  professional,  and  not  such  as  grow 
out  of  civilized  warfare. 

"Whatever,  therefore,  was  objectionable  in  the  ordinance 
alluded  to,  the  high  functionaries  of  the  government  were 
alone  responsible  for  it.  It  was  a  political  and  war  measure 
with  which  the  association  had  no  more  to  do  than  did  the 
Pope  of  Rome,  or  the  worshipful  grand  master  of  a  Masonic 
lodge,  or  any  other  humane  and  charitable  individual,  or 
Christian  and  benevolent  organization,  in  the  land.  In  fact, 
every  man  in  Christendom  was  as  much  bound  to  remonstrate 
with  the  government,  for  any  violation  of  the  rules  of  civilized 


—  i6  — 

warfare,  as  were  the  members  of  the  association.  It  is  a  very 
serious  and  forced  conclusion  to  say,  that  the  association  gave 
its  influence  and  support  to  the  government  to  maintain  it  in 
this  policy,  simply  because  it  refused  at  that  particular  junc- 
ture to  enter  its  protest  against  it,  by  the  adoption  of  these 
resolutions.  If,  as  an  association,  they  had  assumed  a  vindic- 
tive or  hostile  attitude  towards  the  South'  and  advised  the 
adoption  of  this  or  any  other  cruel  or  unjust  procedure  on 
the  part  of  the  Northern  government,  there  would  have  been 
just  reasons  for  complaint  on  the  part  of  Southern  physicians. 
This,  however,  was  not  the  case.  The  association  simply 
held  \\.'=>tVi  firmly  to  \\.?,  professional  position,  to  its  acknowledged 
sphere,  to  its  accredited  duties,  and  refused  to  go  outside  of 
that  position  to  discuss  a  question  which  concerned  that  body 
no  more  than  it  did  any  private  individual  in  the  land.  It  is 
not  wise,  nor  is  it  required  by  any  creed  of  general  courtesy 
or  ethics,  that  honor  shall  always  forbid  that  which  honor 
fails  to  sanction.  Men  are  not  expected  or  required  to  de- 
nounce every  measure  of  which  they  cannot  approve.  There 
are  often  good  reasons  why  they  should  not.  Are  they,  then, 
to  share  the  odium  of  measures  entirely  foreign  to  their  sphere 
and  beyond  their  control?  There  is  certainly  much  differ- 
ence between  the  man  who  commits  crime  and  him  who  fails 
to  remonstrate  with  the  criminal !  As  -well  might  we  reproach 
and  rebuke  the  High  Court  of  Chancery  for  failing  to  lecture 
the  world  on  the  subject  of  religion,  the  giving  of  alms  to 
the  poor,  or  for  any  other  philanthropic  work  which  might 
be  calculated  to  lessen  the  woes  and  mitigate  the  sufferings 
of  fellow-beings.  Society,  and  especially  governments,  have 
assigned  to  different  individuals  and  classes  their  peculiar 
sphere  and  respective  duties,  and  the  world  owes  much  of  its 
harmony  to  this  fortunate  arrangement.  We  have  our  own 
code  of  ethics  and  etiquette,  and  our  own  standard  of  morals, 
and,  if  we  adhere  strictly  to  these,  we  cannot  interfere  with 
the  ethics  of  war  established  by  ordinances  of  government. 
One  of  the  great  reconciling  principles  in  the  philosophy  of 
life  is  a  proper  regard  for  the  rights,  duties  and  principles  of 
others.  Whilst,  by  the  very  nature  of  our  calling,  we  are 
intimately  connected  with   the    interests   of  humanity,  and 


—  17  — 

should  labor  by  every  means  rightfully  at  our  command  to 
promote  its  benefactions,  we  must  be  careful  in  our  zeal  for 
a  good  cause  not  to  hazard  the  position  and  influence  already 
gained  by  invading  the  precincts  and  prerogatives  of  others. 
The  restraints  and  usages  of  governments  in  times  of  war 
may  seem  to  us,  in  many  particulars,  unnecessarily  harsh, 
oppressive  and  cruel;  and,  indeed,  what  civilian  ever  wit- 
nessed the  operation  of  martial  law  who  could  not  find  grave 
objections,  both  to  its  humanity  and  equity?  But  when  these 
have  been  ordained  by  persons  to  whom  we  are  only  subor- 
dinate, we  cannot  be  responsible  for  results,  and  should,  in 
no  way,  share  the  odium,  simply  by  failing  to  place  ourselves 
in  open  antagonism  to  them.  As  long  as  we  labor  with  all 
the  professional,  intellectual  and  moral  efficiency  at  our  com- 
mand, for  the  fulfilment  of  duties  properly  within  our  legiti- 
mate and  recognized  sphere,  we  shall  have  accomplished  all 
the  good  for  humanity  that  the  world  can  reasonably  expect 
or  require  of  us.  But  even  suppose  the  association  did  com- 
mit an  error,  in  fact  and  in  spirit,  in  failing  to  remonstrate 
with  its  government,  as  stated,  where  is  the  wisdom,  at  this 
day,  of  opposition  to  its  future  and  permanent  interests? 
Suppose  that  the  feeble  assaults  which  have  been  made  upon 
it  should  swell  into  a  hostility  whose  magnitude  should  in 
the  end  mar  its  progress,  compass  its  disorganization,  and 
defeat  its  claims  to  a  grand  nationality,  who  could  receive 
credit  for  such  a  work?  Where  would  be  the  glory  of  success 
or  the  fruit  of  such  victory?  Could  science,  could  humanity, 
could  the  country  thank  one  for  such  a  service  ?  What  has 
brought  the  science  of  medicine  to  its  present  state  of  ad- 
vancement but  the  labor  of  intellects  combined  in  organization  ? 
Like  the  tiny  insect  which  lays  up  its  stores  for  the  wants  of 
winter,  we  too  must  acknowledge  the  great  law  which  sanc- 
tions the  wisdom  of  associated  labor.  The  imperishable 
grandeur  and  usefulness  of  all  sciences  owe  their  highest 
development  to  organized  effort.  The  future  glories  of  the 
science  of  medicine  in  this  country  lie  embodied  in  powers 
yet  latent  in  organization,  and  he  who  seeks  to  disturb  this 
great  element  in  its  prosperity  is  no  friend  to  progress. 

"The  animus  of  the  association   has  shown   itself  to  be 


honorable  and  kind  in  every  reference  made  to  its  Southern 
members,  during  and  since  the  war;  honorable  to  itself, 
honorable  to  the  profession,  honorable,  just  and  generous  to 
the  South.  When  I  went  to  its  last  meeting  (in  Washington), 
I  did  so  from  a  sense  of  duty  and  with  the  earnest  desire  of 
seeing  the  two  sections  united  in  their  professional  relations 
and  purposes.  I  did  not  solicit  any  honors,  and  asked  no 
man  to  vote  for  me  for  any  office.  Yet  with  a  meagre  repre- 
sentation from  the  South,  they  conferred  upon  me  the  highest 
office  in  their  gift.  I  knew  myself  to  be  unworthy  of  the  high 
distinction,  and  felt  it  was  not  intended  for  me.  I  knew  it 
had  a  broader  and  higher  significance  than  that  of  a  mere 
tribute  to  personal  and  private  ambition.  I  knew  it  to  be  in 
keeping  with  that  kindly  spirit  displayed  by  the  Northern 
delegates  towards  their  Southern  brethren  throughout  their 
'Transactions,'  and  that  it  was  but  a  fresh  offering  of  the 
olive  branch  of  peace.  In  this  spirit  I  accepted  it.  No 
man  asked  me  anything  in  relation  to  my  political  senti- 
ments. I  cannot  boast  of  performances  in  the  late  struggle, 
but  I  have  never  disguised  the  fact  from  any  one,  that  in 
all  the  earnest  desires  of  the  heart  which  constitute  devotion 
to  a  cause,  I  yield  to  none  in  my  loyalty  to  that  which  has 
gone  down  in  the  gloom  of  defeat,  and  for  which  those  tender 
youths,  your  son  and  mine,  fought  side  by  side,  and  fighting 
fell  for  principles  held  dear  by  you  and  by  me.  I  would  not 
stultify  myself  on  this  point  for  all  the  honors  which  could 
be  heaped  upon  me  by  the  medical  profession,  or  by  any 
other  class  of  men.  Nor  do  I  think  my  Northern  brothers 
would  respect  me  more  for  being  false  to  my  section.  In 
the  death  of  my  boy  I  found  the  hardest  heart-sorrow  of  my 
life,  and  the  weary  years  which  have  since  passed  by  have 
been  powerless  to  still  its  anguish ;  and  yet  I  could  but  feel 
a  mournful  pride  in  a  knowledge  of  the  fact  that  he  died  on 
the  field  of  glory,  and  true  to  the  land  which  gave  him  birth. 
But  the  crushed  affections  and  blighted  hopes  of  the  father, 
who  has  yielded  a  noble  sacrifice  to  his  country,  as  he  sits  in 
silent  and  sacred  memory  of  his  holiest  grief,  can  find  no 
relief  by  barbing  the  anguish  of  his  heart  with  feelings  of 
malice,  hatred  and  revenge  towards  those  who,  in  honorable 


—  19  — 

combat,  had  been  made  the  instruments  of  his  sorrow. 
Natural  affection  does  not  require  this ;  true  manliness  does 
not  demand  it.  No,  doctor,  I  do  not  wish  to  cherish  feelings 
of  bitterness  with  the  memory  of  my  son.  I  wish  to  forget 
all  that  is  painful  and  harrowing  to  the  heart,  and  to  remem- 
ber him  as  he  was,  the  soldier,  patriot  and  Christian,  falling 
in  honorable  warfare,  and  that  the  hand  which  sent  the  fatal 
ball  which  deprived  him  of  life  was  that  of  some  brave  and 
generous  spirit,  moved  by  the  same  high  purpose,  the  same 
stern  sense  of  duty,  the  same  devotion  to  principle  and  coun- 
try which  guided  and  actuated  him.  So  far  from  entertaining 
sentiments  of  unkindness  towards  our  brothers  of  the  medical 
profession  North,  growing  out  of  this  aiifliction,  my  only  feel- 
ing has  been,  that  if  any  one  of  them  had  been  near  him  in 
that  dreadful  hour,  his  highest  care  would  have  been  to  have 
drawn,  if  possible,  the  fatal  ball  from  his  breast  and  restored 
him  to  life  and  health.  How  unwise  and  unprofitable  it  is 
to  seek  to  mingle  the  temper  of  partisan  strife  with  the  affairs 
of  a  great  science  !  If  the  gallant  General  Hampton,  whose 
blood  flowed  so  freely  in  the  late  war,  and  whose  home,  with 
the  homes  of  his  people,  was  consumed  and  made  desolate  by 
the  flames  of  the  Northern  army,  can  speak  gratefully  of  '  the 
spirit  of  conciliation,  the  magnanimity  and  kindness  '  of  those 
'who  recognize  us  as  no  longer  foes,  but  brethren,'  can,  for 
his  country's  good,  declare  his  willingness  to  bury  'all  past 
differences  in  one  common  grave,'  to  'accept  the  right  hand 
of  fellowship  ...  so  frankly  extended,'  and  greet  as  a 
'comrade'  him  whose  hand  'so  lately  grasped  the  sword,' 
but  now  'bears  the  olive  branch  of  peace,'  shall  we  be  so 
sectional  and  prejudiced  as  to  nurse  feelings  of  hostility 
towards  a  brotherhood  from  whom  we  have  ever  received 
only  evidences  of  marked  kindness  and  honorable  courtesy  ? 
If  the  talented  and  independent  editor  of  the  Richmond  and 
Louisville  Medical  Journal,  Professor  E.  S.  Gaillard,  who  lost 
his  right  arm,  when  a  medical  director,  in  the  discharge  of 
his  surgical  duties  on  the  field  of  battle,  thus  depriving  him 
of  all  hope  of  farther  advancement  in  the  special  department 
which  had  been  the  d^ice  of  his  youth,  for  which  genius, 
education  and  a  thorougltkaiethod  had  so  well  prepared  him. 


and  to  which  the  achievements  of  early  manhood  had  already 
given  such  brilliant  promise  of  successful  ambition — I  say,  if 
he  can  advise  that  we  should  cover  over  the  past  '  with  the 
mantle  of  personal  and  professional  charity,'  that  we  should 
*  take  the  outstretched  hand,  accept  the  offer  of  friendliness 
and  reconciliation  ;  '  and  that  the  reception  of  the  '  medical 
men  of  America,'  when  they  assemble  in  New  Orleans,  in  May 
next,  should  be  *  not  only  a  hospitable  reception,  but  a  warm, 
a  manly  and  a  generous  welcome,'  cannot  those  who  never 
felt  a  wound,  and  can  even  jest  at  scars,  lay  aside  feelings 
which  can  neither  yield  fruits  to  our  noble  science  nor  do 
honor  to  our  manhood  ?  Is  any  one  vain  or  weak  enough  to 
believe  that  our  Northern  brothers  will  derive  an  advantage 
from  fellowship,  union  and  harmony  which  we  will  not  share 
in  an  equal  ratio  ? 

"Pardon  me,  dear  doctor,  for  trespassing  so  long  upon 
your  valuable  time.  I  know  you  will  excuse  it  in  the  interest 
which  you  feel  in  the  general  prosperity  of  the  medical  pro- 
fession of  the  whole  country,  and  especially  in  the  desire 
which  you  feel  to  see  your  Southern  friends  come  fully  up  to 
their  duty  in  meeting  the  honorable  advances  which  have 
been  made  by  our  Northern  brothers,  looking  to  a  complete 
and  perfect  fraternization.  I  think  the  American  Medical 
Association  is  to  be  the  power  through  which  a  greater  good 
is  to  be  accomplished  for  the  profession  in  this  country  than 
has  yet  been  achieved.  On  this  point  you  may  perhaps  hear 
from  me  at  some  future  time.  I  will  only  say  now, -that  its 
organization  had  its  inception  chiefly  in  an  idea  which  has 
not  yet  been  realized — that  of  elevating  the  standard  of 
medical  education  in  this  country.  But  I  believe  its  labors 
in  this  direction  will  yet  be  felt  and  acknowledged.  To  this 
end,  //  7niist  be  national  zx^^  represent  the  interests  of  the  pro- 
fession in  every  part  of  the  country.  Those  who  comprehend 
the  grandeur  of  its  germ,  appreciate  full  well  the  ultimate 
possibility  of  its  nature,  and  will  see  to  it  that  the  inspiration 
which  gave  it  birth  shall  be  worked  to  a  final  and  successful 
end.  The  advancement  of  science,  the  affections  of  an  en- 
lightened brotherhood,  the  interests  of  society  and  the  good 
of  humanity  are  all  united  with  it,  and  from  every  section  I 


have  the  most  gratifying  assurances  of  a  determination  to 
bury  all  other  sentiments  in  the  one  great  purpose  of  pro- 
moting harmony  and  concert  of  action,  with  the  kindest  feel- 
ings of  fraternal  regard.  Assure  our  friends  of  the  North  of 
this,  and  tell  them  we  desire  to  meet  them  in  large  numbers 
in  New  Orleans  in  May. 

"With  assurances  of  the  highest  regard,  believe  me,  dear 
doctor,  "  Most  sincerely  and  truly  your  friend, 

"W.  O.  Baldwin,  M.  D." 

[Letter  3.] 
"  New  \\)KK,  No.  4  West  Twenty-Second  street. 
''March  2>fh,  1S69. 
"  W.  O.  Baldwin,  M.  D.  : 

"  My  Dear  Doctor:  Your  letter  of  the  2d  has  just  come  to 
hand.  I  hasten  to  reply  by  return  mail.  Whilst  I  am  fully 
sensible  that  your  kind  feelings  for  me  have  tempted  you  to 
speak  in  terms  of  praise  beyond  my  merits,  I  have  the  vanity 
to  believe  that  you  do  not  over-estimate  my  high  sense 
of  obligation  to  our  noble  profession  ;  my  unceasing  efforts 
to  uphold  its  dignity,  and  my  endeavors  to  promote  friendly 
feelings  amongst  its  members.  I  have  always  maintained 
that  we  could  not  deserve  or  command  the  respect  of  the 
world,  unless  we  respected  each  other  and  preserved  a  proper 
esprii  de  corps.  Wlien  I  was  about  to  take  my  farewell  of 
the  people  of  Mobile,  among  whom  I  had  lived  for  thirty 
years,  the  leading  citizens  gave  me  a  public  dinner,  and  the 
members  of  the  profession  a  handsonie  reception,  at  whicli  I 
was  presented  with  a  piece  of  plate,  on  which  was  engraved 
the  name  of  every  regular  practitioner  of  the  city.  This,  to 
me,  was  a  crowning  glory  of  a  long  career,  as  it  was  grateful 
evidence  to  me  that  my  constant  efforts  to  keep  the  mem- 
bers of  the  profession  together  in  brotherly  love  and  useful- 
ness had  not  been  in  vain.  You  may  well  believe  then,  my 
dear  friend,  that  your  present  efforts  in  the  same  good  cause, 
on  a  wider  field,  meet  my  hearty  approbation  and  sympathy. 
I  have  nothing  to  suggest  in  addition  to  your  excellent  letter, 
which  covers  the  whole  ground  at  issue  ;  it  is  temperate, 
honest,  manly,   and   in  every  way  becoming   the  high  and 


responsible  position  in  which  you  are  placed.  I  doubt  not 
it  will  be  responded  to  by  the  profession.  North,  South,  East 
and  West,  in  the  same  spirit  in  which  it  was  conceived. 
The  construction  you  have  given  to  the  action  of  the  Ameri- 
can Medical  Association,  on  the  preamble  and  resolutions 
of  Dr.  A.  K.  Gardner,  to  which  you  refer,  corresponds  pre- 
cisely with  that  I  have  heard  expressed  by  all  the  members  of 
the  profession  I  have  met  at  the  North.  The  time  of  the 
association  was  fully  occupied  with  matters  that  properly  be- 
longed to  it,  and  these  resolutions  trenched  upon  political 
or  military  considerations  which  were  foreign  to  the  business 
of  the  association,  which  they  could  not  influence.  Any 
debate  upon  them  might  have  led  to  unpleasant  remarks 
from  some  impetuous  member,  and  it  was,  therefore,  best 
to  lay  them  on  the  table.  If  such  resolutions  had  been  laid 
before  any  hundred  members  of  our  profession,  during  the 
war,  at  the  South,  what,  let  me  ask,  would  have  been  the 
result?  There  is  a  statistical  law  that  throws  a  certain  per 
cent,  of  unwise  heads  into  every  assembly  of  this  kind,  and 
the  less  opportunity  they  have  of  talking,  the  better. 

"Now,  sir,  I  beg  leave  to  say  a  word  of  my  personal  expe- 
rience, since  the  war,  at  the  North.  Soon  after  the  war 
closed,  I  was  summoned  to  Washington  as  a  witness  in  the 
Wirz  trial,  and  seized  the  occasion  to  run  over  to  Philadelphia 
to  see  what  I  could  discover  that  was  new  in  the  way  of  books, 
instruments,  practice,  etc.,  we  having  been  shut  out  from 
the  world  for  four  years.  Not  only  did  the  medical,  gentle- 
men of  Philadelphia  receive  me  politely,  but  they  seemed 
to  feel  as  if  they  thought  I  might  feel  some  delicacy  in  pre- 
senting my  rebel  facs  in  their  midst,  and  were  more  desirous 
than  I  had  ever  seen  them,  of  treating  me  with  hospitality. 
About  a  year  ago,  I  came  to  pitch  ray  tent  in  the  city  of 
New  York,  determined  to  ask  no  favors  of  the  members  of 
the  profession,  and  not  one  of  them  can  say  that  I  ever 
solicited  an  introduction  to  him;  and  yet,  it  would  sound  like 
egotism  Avere  I  to  tell  of  half  tlie  respect,  the  hospitality,  and 
kindness  I  have  received,  both  in  and  out  of  the  profession  in 
the  city  of  New  York.  It  is  but  justice  to  the  faculty  in  New 
York  to  say  that  in  tone,  talent  and  attainment,  it  will  com- 


pare  favorably  witli  that  of  the  large  capitals  of  Europe. 
But  suppose  we  atlmit  that  the  action  of  the  association  on  the 
resolutions  of  Dr.  Gardner  was  dictated  by  sectional  and 
unchristianlike  motives:  this  does  not  alter  the  case.  'I'he 
war  is  over  ;  our  prosperity  and  happiness  depend  upon  our 
return  to  the  former  status  of  the  country,  politically  and 
socially;  passion  and  prejudice  should  be  laid  in  the  grave 
with  the  half-million  of  brave  men  that  have  been  buried  in 
the  bloody  strife.  The  olive-branch  has  been  gracefully  and 
cordially  tendered  by  our  medical  brethren  at  the  North  to 
those  at  the  South,  and  it  is  your  duty  to  accept  it  frankly 
and  in  good  faith.  The  medical  profession  has  a  great  mis- 
sion to  fulfil.  ISIedicine  is  not  only  a  healing  art,  but  is  the 
mother  of  anatomy  and  physiology  in  their  most  extended 
sense;  of  botany,  chemistry,  mineralogy,  geology,  etc.;  in 
fact,  of  all  the  natural  sciences,  from  which  have  sprung  the 
useful  arts.  It  has  been  the  great  fountain  from  which  have 
flowed  the  elements  of  civilization,  from  the  foundation  of 
the  Egyptian  empire  to  the  present  day.  Now,  my  dear 
friend,  will  the  medical  profession  at  the  South  be  outdone 
in  magnanimity?  will  they  permit  a  petty  pique,  or  even  the 
remembrance  of  a  great  civil  war,  in  which,  perhaps,  we 
were  all  to  blame,  to  cross  the  path  of  science,  and  to  mar  a 
great  enterprise  like  that  of  the  Medical  Association  ?  (]od 
forbid  !  My  many  old  friends  must  throw  aside  all  minor 
considerations  and  come  forward  in  sustaining  your  efforts  to 
maintain  the  true  honor  of  the  South,  the  dignity  of  our  pro- 
fession, and  the  cause  of  humanity. 

"Very  truly  your  friend,  "J.  C.  Nott." 

In  May,  1S69,  the  annual  meeting  of  the  American  Medi- 
cal Association  was  held  at  New  Orleans,  La.,  and  Ur.  Bald- 
win, as  President,  delivered  the  annual  address,  in  which,  re- 
ferring to  the  absence  of  sectional  prejudice  among  the  medi- 
cal profession,  even  during  the  heat  of  active  warfare,  he 
said : 

"To  me,  gentlemen,  this  occasion  is  one  of  solemnity  and 
significance.  Standing  here  in  the  great  commercial  metropo- 
lis of  the  South,  I  feel  myself  surrounded  by  men  represent- 


—    24  — 

ing  nearly  every  section  of  a  country  so  lately  arrayed  in 
hostile  strife.  At  a  time  when  every  other  organization  has 
been  shaken  to  its  centre  by  the  passions  of  deadliest  hate;  at 
a  time  when  the  most  matured  conservatism  has  been  over- 
mastered by  the  vindictive  fury  which  has  swayed  the 
popular  mind  ;  at  a  time  when  even  instinct  has  been  treach- 
erous to  its  ends,  you  have  been  drawn  hither  from  homes  far 
distant,  over  highways  full  of  painful  historic  incidents, 
through  territories  watered  by  the  blood  and  tears  of  a 
sorrowing  nation,  and  you  have  assembled  here  as  brothers 
and  friends  to  unite  your  offerings  to  a  common  science. 
The  mournful  witnesses  of  this  terrific  struggle  have  con- 
fronted your  eyes  ;  the  shadowy  phantoms  still  linger  on  the 
stage  where  these  tragedies  have  been  performed  ;  the  air  we 
breathe  has  not  yet  lost  its  echoing  groans  of  dying  heroism 
nor  the  pathetic  anguish  of  sorrowing  relatives.  Amid  these 
circumstances  so  sundering  to  the  most  sacred  companionships 
of  life,  you  have  met  in  the  spirit  of  Him  who  is  this  world's 
greatest  and  best  Healer — that  Divine  One,  who,  opening  and 
continuing  his  ministry  of  service,  by  curing  all  manner  of 
diseases,  finished  its  majestic  self-denial  in  the  reconciliations 
of  the  cross.  Eight  years  ago  we  were  separated  by  civil 
war.  That  war  engendered  the  bitterest  feeling  in  every 
other  national  organization,  whether  scientific,  political,  or 
Christian  ;  but  the  members  of  this  association,  without  words 
of  crimination  or  reproach  for  one  another,  assumed  the  re- 
spective places  assigned  them  by  the  obligation  of  citizenship. 
Through  the  long  and  bloody  contest  which  ensued,  this  asso- 
ciation, in  its  resources,  honor  and  renown,  was  in  the  keep- 
ing of  our  Northern  brethren,  and  during  those  memorable 
years,  when  the  sense  of  bitter  wrong  and  burning  hate  filled 
all  hearts,  and  when  friendships  and  affections  born  of  the 
hallowed  ties  of  consanguinity  sent  their  messages — once  of 
love  and  tenderness — at  the  point  of  the  bayonet  or  through 
the  cannon's  mouth,  what  v/ere  the  feelings  which  moved  this 
association?  At  the  first  meeting,  two  years  after  the  war 
began,  they  indulged  only  in  expressions  of  profound  regret 
that  '  the  brethren  who  once  knelt  witli  them  at  the  same  holy 
altar  and  drank  with  them  at  the  same  pure  fountain  had  been 


—  25  — 

separated  from  them  by  civil  war,  endangering  thereby  the 
claims  of  the  association  to  an  unselfish  nationality,  and  rob- 
bing it  of  the  presence  and  the  counsel  of  many  of  its  warmest 
adherents,'  while  praying  at  the  following  meeting  that  the 
period  would  soon  come  when  we  should  again  be  'one  in 
our  political,  professional  and  social  relations.'  The  same 
humane  and  catholic  sjnrit  continued  during  the  war  to  mark 
the  conduct  of  the  members  of  this  association.  Each  of  the 
divided  sections  met  the  tasks  required  by  its  respective  posi- 
tion. But  wherever  found,  whether  sharing  the  hardships  of 
the  campaign  or  discharging  the  duties  of  private  practice, 
they  comprehended  the  essential  difference  between  what 
might  prove  on  the  one  hand  a  transitory  evil,  and  what  on 
the  other  hand  they  knew  would  be  a  lasting  good.  Accord- 
ingly they  remained  the  consistent  representatives  of  a  noble 
brotherhood.  If  they  did  not  sink  the  patriot  in  the  physi- 
cian, they  did  not  sink  the  physician  in  the  patriot.  The  im- 
perative instincts  of  each  character,  true  to  its  trusts  and 
faithful  to  its  requirements,  acted  for  themselves  and  in  the 
direction  of  their  own  ends.  Amid  the  shouts  of  battle  and 
the  shock  of  arms  they  raised  themselves  to  the  height  and 
grandeur  of  their  calling,  and  thus  stood  far  above  the  embit- 
tered prejudices  that  encircled  all  other  classes  of  men.  So 
far  from  allowing  the  fugitive  passions  of  the  times  to  betray 
them  from  their  professional  allegiance,  they  vindicated  their 
sagacity  no  less  than  their  manliness  by  looking  to  the  future 
— by  contemplating  results  not  the  less  certain  because  re- 
mote, by  regarding  with  thoughts  chastened  and  subdued  that 
state  of  man  in  which  the  interests  of  life  and  death  meet 
together ;  and  by  considering  as  paramount  to  all  selfish 
motives  the  claims  of  that  science  with  whose  undisclosed 
mysteries  they  must  yet  wrestle  for  the  well-being  of  man- 
kind. Above  all,  they  looked  to  the  transcendent  value  of  a 
virtue  which  should  contrast  in  broad  masses  of  light  its 
purity  and  power  with  the  corruptions  and  frailties  of  the 
hour,  which  should,  by  reason  of  its  disinterestedness,  diffuse 
itself  through  the  affections  of  nations,  and  reach,  in  the 
large  outgoings  of  its  sympathy,  the  hearts  of  generations  yet 
unborn.     When  at   last  this  dispensation  of  carnage  ended^ 


—    26    — 

and  whilst  as  yet  the  war-path  was  crimsoned  with  the  blood 
or  whitened  with  the  unburied  bones  of  our  brethren,  this 
association  again  met.  Like  the  surges  of  the  sea,  dark, 
tumultuous,  raging,  though  the  storm  has  passed  from  the  sky 
and  fled  beyond  the  horizon,  the  meaner  instincts  of  hatred, 
revenge  and  persecution  still  swayed  the  multitude.  The 
mob  of  fanatical  intellect  unappeased  and  the  mob  of  popular 
passions  thirsting  for  new  strife  joined  their  hands  to  prolong 
the  wretched  alienation.  The  avenging  angel  had  lifted  his 
brooding  wings  from  the  landscape,  and  cried,  '  It  is  enough,' 
but  now  other  vials  of  wrath  seemed  about  to  be  poured  forth 
on  a  land  hopeless  because  helpless.  You  then  met  to  pour 
oil  on  the  unquiet  waters.  Here  was  scope  for  a  statesman- 
ship, aye,  for  a  generalship,  grander  than  any  which  the  war 
had  developed.  Here  was  the  best  of  opportunities  to  inau- 
gurate a  new  epoch  of  fraternal  sympathy.  Nor  were  you 
unmindful  of  its  solemn  behests.  True  to  your  past  profes- 
sions of  regret  over  our  separation,  you  saw  the  vacant  seats, 
in  this  association,  of  your  Southern  brethren,  and,  actuated 
by  the  higher  instincts  of  manhood,  and  scorning  the  base 
ambition  to  degrade  a  fallen  antagonist  whom  the  saddest 
experience  had  taught  the  bitterest  lessons  of  life,  you  set 
the  nation  an  example  of  dignity,  moderation  and  virtue  to 
which  no  other  organization  in  the  land  has  yet  had  the  wis- 
dom or  the  sensibility  to  rise. 

"Within  a  few  weeks  after  the  cessation  of  hostilities  the 
association  held  its  regular  annual  meeting  in  the  city,  of  New 
York,  and  there  renewed  with  manly  sympathy  its  former 
expressions  of  kindness,  inviting  us  to  come  again  and  be 
their  brethren.  I  quote  their  own  language  on  that  occasion 
when  I  say:  'The  unhappy  feud  which  for  years  has  divided 
the  nation  has  ceased,  and  peace  has  come,  we  trust  forever ; 
so  we  hope  soon  again  to  meet  our  members  and  delegates 
from  the  South  on  the  platform  of  fraternization,  and  to  this 
end  we  extend  to  them  a  cordial  welcome.'  At  a  subsequent 
meeting  you  repeated  this  sentiment  in  the  following  lan- 
guage :  '  We  would  fain  meet  again  those  from  whom  we  have 
been  separated,  draw  the  mantle  of  forgetfulness  over  the  past, 
renew  to  them  the  expressions  of  regard,  and  with  them  dcdi- 


cate  the  hour  and  the  occasion  to  the  sacred  cause  of  learn- 
ing, friendship  and  truth.'.  And  when,  at  the  last  meeting, 
we  met  our  Northern  brethren,  how  were  we  received?  They 
met  us  as  equals  in  the  past  and  equals  in  the  present,  saying, 
in  effect,  if  not  in  words:  '  If  quarrel  we  ever  had,  it  is  over; 
we  have  no  explanations  to  offer,  no  apologies  to  demand  ;  we 
know  that  we  have  done  our  duty ;  we  feel  that  you  have 
done  no  more,  and  that  you  would  have  been  unworthy  your 
noble  vocation  had  you  done  less;  we  have  guarded  faithfully 
the  institution  so  long  left  in  our  charge,  in  which  we  now 
claim  but  an  equal  interest  with  you;  with  the  incense  which 
we  have  burned  in  its  sacred  fane  we  have  not  permitted  the 
poisonous  spirit  of  party  to  mingle,  and  we  now  invite  you 
to  go  with  us  to  the  smiling  and  peaceful  fields  of  that  science 
whose  interests  it  shall  be  our  common  work  to  foster  and 
advance;  here  we  will  walk  with  you  to  the  stern  realities 
and  sublime  grandeur  of  labor  and  thought,  and  find  in  their 
quiet  paths  a  relief  from  the  gloom  of  the  past;  here  we  will 
divide  with  you  the  toils  and  share  with  you  the  rewards  of 
labor,  the  labors  of  success.'  Against  the  insolence  of  the 
day;  against  its  unreasoning  pride,  its  overweening  vanity  and 
shamelessness,  your  conduct  bore  a  moral  protest,  which, 
while  acting  directly  on  our  profession,  has  had.no  small 
agency  in  producing  those  indications  of  a  return  to  recipro- 
cal sentiments  of  confidence  and  respect  in  which  all  the 
good  men  of  the  country  rejoice.  The  mythical  war  between 
the  Athenians  and  Amazons  led,  in  the  midst  of  arms,  to  the 
most  intimate  friendship  between  the  leaders.  When  Pirith- 
ous  and  Theseus  finally  met  on  the  plains  of  Marathon,  after 
many  a  hard-fought  battle,  the  former,  regarding  himself  and 
army  as  captors,  said  to  the  latter:  'Be  judge  thyself;  what 
satisfaction  dost  thou  require  ?  '  The  noble  Athenian  replied  : 
'  Thy  friendship,'  and  they  swore  inviolable  fidelity,  and  were 
ever  after  true  brothers-in-arms.  Alas!  that  the  nineteenth 
century  has  so  often  to  recur  to  classical  heathenism  to  find 
its  illustrations  of  genuine  magnanimity.  Looking  at  these 
facts,  am  I  not  warranted  in  asking  if  any  organization  has 
emerged  from  our  late  convulsions  with  so  much  dignity? 
Has  it  not  come  forth  from  the  sharp  ordeal  with  those  grace- 


—    28   — 

ful  virtues  that  belong  to  our  higher  nature?  The  world  may 
have  its  conventional  rules  of  intercourse  between  man  and 
man — its  creed  of  moral  philosophy — its  code  of  honor,  its 
accredited  formula  of  behavior,  while  it  lavishes  its  praise  on 
the  charms  of  human  brotherhood  ;  but  it  has  been  left  to 
the  American  Medical  Association  to  teach  practically  the  in- 
tellects of  the  land  one  of  the  most  ennobling  lessons  on  the 
dignity,  beauty  and  glory  of  refined  and  civilized  life :  a  les- 
son that  not  only  hallows  the  spirit  of  our  professional  char- 
acter, but  instructs  the  physician  in  those  spiritual  sentiments 
which  lead  to  the  highest  virtues,  among  which  are  reckoned 
charity  and  forgiveness.  Of  the  one  we  are  told  that  the 
archangel,  who  never  knew  the  feeling  of  hatred,  has  reason 
to  envy  the  man  who  subdues  it ;  while  of  the  other  it  is 
said,  that  when  we  practise  forgiveness  to  the  man  who  has 
pierced  our  heart,  he  stands  to  us  in  the  relation  of  the  sea- 
worm,  that  perforates  the  shell  of  the  muscle,  which  straight- 
way closes  the  wound  with  a  pearl." 

After  thus  dwelling  on  the  moral  spirit  of  the  association, 
he  proceeded  to  discuss  the  subject  of  Medical  Education, 
the  elevation  of  which  was  the  chief  object  for  which  the 
American  Medical  Association  was  organized.  He  contrasts 
at  length  the  lax  system  of  medical  education  tolerated  in  this 
country  with  the  thorough  and  systematic  course  required  of 
the  student  by  the  European  system,  and  points  out  that  the 
fundamental  error  in  the  American  system  is  the  defective 
nature  of  the  preliminary  education,  and  urges  a  reform  in 
medical  colleges  which  shall  establish  "a  uniform  and  ele- 
vated standard  of  requirements  for  the  degree  of  M.  D." 
He  advocates  the  establishment  of  one  or  more  National 
Medical  Schools  or  Universities  which  should  confer  such 
distinctions  and  privileges  as  would  be  proportionate  to  the 
superiority  they  demand,  and  such  as  would  make  the  attain- 
ment of  their  diploma  an  object  to  the  ambition  of  those  who 
engage  in  the  study  of  medicine ;  the  chairs  to  be  open  to 
all  aspirants,  and  the  appointment  or  election  of  professors  to 
be  so  guarded  as  to  secure  the  very  highest  talents,  the  most 
profound  learning,  with  the  most  fully  demonstrated  capacity 
for  teaching.     The  salaries  of  the  professors  to  be  large  and 


—    29    — 

not  dependent  upon  the  number  of  students,  and  the  Federal 
government  to  assume  a  proper  share  of  the  expenses  incurred. 

On  the  motion  for  adjournment,  he  delivered  the  following 
address,  whicli  was  unanimously  ordered  to  be  published  ia 
the  minutes  of  the  association  : 

"Gentle.men:  Before  I  submit  the  motion  just  made,  and 
which,  when  adopted,  will  practically  close  my  official  rela- 
tions to  this  body,  allow  me  to  return  you  my  most  cordial 
and  grateful  thanks  for  the  unvarying  kindness  which  I 
have  received  at  your  hands.  Whatever  my  future  lot  in  life 
may  be,  the  world  holds  no  honors  which  to  me  can  equal 
those  conferred  by  you.  The  fraternal  good-will  which  has 
so  conspicuously  marked  your  deliberations  has  been  to  me  a 
matter  of  infinite  satisfaction  and  pride,  and  will  not  be  the 
least  among  the  grateful  memories  which  will  gladden  my 
heart  as  I  may  hereafter  review  the  incidents  of  my  official 
connection  with  you. 

"To  win  your  judgment  and  approval,  to  hold  up  the 
dignity  of  fellowship,  the  usefulness  of  association,  and  the 
interest  and  prosperity  of  the  profession  at  large,  have  cer- 
tainly occupied  my  most  anxious  thoughts  since  my  elevation 
to  this  position  ;  yet  to  cherish  and  promote  the  intimate 
and  cordial  relations  of  friendship  between  the  individual 
members  of  this  association  against  all  sectional  distinctions 
or  geographical  lines  has  also  been  among  the  chief  objects 
of  my  ambition  and  the  earnest  desires  of  my  heart.  Could 
I  now  believe  that  my  efforts  have  contributed  in  the  slightest 
degree  to  enlarging  that  harmony  of  sentiment  and  frater- 
nal feeling  which  has  been  so  apparent  throughout  this  meet- 
ing, I  should  feel  that  I  had  commenced  at  least  to  make 
some  return  for  the  great  honor  and  kindness  received  at  your 
hands. 

"  It  now  only  remains  for  me,  gentlemen,  to  again  express 
to  you  my  thanks,  to  wish  you  a  safe  return  to  your  homes 
and  labors,  a  happy  reunion  with  your  friends  and  families, 
and  to  pronounce  that  sad  word,  over  which  the  heart  of 
friendship  would  fain  linger,  as  I  bid  you  an  affectionate 
farewell." 

In  March,   1870,  at  a  banquet  following  the  meeting  of 


—  3°  — 

the  Alabama  State  Medical  Association,  Dr.  Baldwin,  group- 
ing together  the  noble  names  of  the  deceased  members  in  one 
common  association  of  worth  and  excellence,  paid  a  manly 
and  appropriate  tribute  to  their  personal  virtues  and  scientific 
attainments,  and  concluded  by  saying : 

"  It  is  wise  for  us,  as  we  look  upon  the  vacant  places 
of  these  worthies,  to  stop  in  the  midst  of  our  festivities  and 
contemplate  the  character  of  such  men — to  drop  the  tear 
of  affection  and  esteem  upon  their  memories,  and  to  point  to 
them  as  examples  worthy  the  emulation  of  the  junior  mem- 
bers of  this  association,  who  must  hereafter  fill  their  places 
in  giving  character  and  direction  to  its  proceedings.  In  all 
ages,  in  all  countries,  in  all  professions  or  callings,  the  man 
of  genius,  or  the  good  man  who  dies,  leaving  the  world 
wiser,  better,  for  having  lived,  receives  the  homage  and  tears 
of  the  cotemporaries  who  survive  him.  If  this  be  true  of 
other  callings,  how  much  more  so  should  it  be  with  us  when, 
as  is  too  often  the  case,  our  men  die  of  diseases  entailed 
through  their  efforts  to  mitigate  the  sufferings  of  others."  . 

At  the  meeting  of  the  American  Medical  Association  in 
Philadelphia,  in  May,  1872,  Dr.  David  W.  Yandell,  the 
President,  delivered  an  address,  in  which  he  advocated  a 
system  of  medical  education  diametrically  opposed  to  that 
recommended  by  Dr.  Baldwin.  This  address  was  reviewed 
by  Dr.  Baldwin  in  the  New  York  Medical  Journal  of  Octo- 
ber, 1872,  in  scathing  terms,  as  a  weak  and  specious  plea 
for  cheap  medical  schools.  He  ridicules  Dr. '  Yandell's 
preference  for  the  American  cross-roads  doctor,  for  whose 
"rugged  utility"  the  doctor  had  not  hesitated  to  declare 
that  he  would  exchange  the  cultivated  method  of  the  learned 
and  accomplished  physician  of  Germany.  He  vigorously 
combats  Dr.  Yandell's  assertion  that  "clinical  instruction 
should  be  the  alpha  and  omega  of  a  medical  education," 
and  that  "  in  the  midst  of  these  clinical  demonstrations, 
physic  is  to  be  learned,  and  not  by  going  to  universities." 
As  a  literary  production,  however,  he  compliments  very 
highly  Dr.  Yandell's  address,  and  pays  a  glowing  tribute  to 
Dr.  Yandell's  father,  to  whom  Dr.  Baldwin,  as  his  pupil,  was 
always   deeply   attached.     At   a   meeting   of    the    American 


_  31  — 

Medical  Association  held  in  Louisville,  Ky.,  in  May,  1S75, 
in  response  to  the  address  of  Dr.  Bowditch,  of  Boston, 
Dr.  Baldwin  made  the  following  remarks,  which  were  highly 
eulogized  by  the  press  throughout  the  country : 

"Mr.  President:  I  am  glad  to  say  to  the  gentleman 
who  has  just  taken  his  seat  that  long  since  Alabama  shook 
hands  with  Massachusetts  in  fraternal  reunion.  I  wish  to 
renew  the  pledges  of  fraternal  regard  to-day,  and  with  him 
express  my  high  appreciation  of  the  magnificent  and  almost 
boundless  hospitality  extended  to  our  brotherhood  by  the 
resident  physicians  and  citizens  of  Louisville.  So  conspicu- 
ous has  been  the  fraternal  good  feeling  which  lias  met  and 
mingled  in  all  our  meetings,  largely  through  their  actions, 
that  I  feel  more  than  ever  like  exclaiming  with  De  Wilton, 
when  his  lady-love  had  buckled  on  his  spurs  for  the  bloody 
field  of  Flodden  : 

"  '  Where'er  I  meet  a  Douglas,  trust 
That  Douglas  is  my  brother.' 

"  Gentlemen,  physicians  of  Louisville,  I  thank  you,  and 
through  you  the  good  citizens  of  your  fair  city,  for  your 
efforts  in  cementing  the  social  bond  of  union  which  binds 
our  brotherhood.  By  your  hearty  welcome,  by  your  gener- 
ous hospitalities,  by  your  graceful  courtesies,  you  have  won 
the  hearts  of  all  whose  good  fortune  it  was  to  be  here,  and  as 
a  Southern  man,  and  as  an  American,  I  wish  to  thank  you. 
I  wish  to  express  my  great  gratification  in  meeting  on  this 
occasion  so  many  of  our  professional  brothers  of  the  North — 
and  when  I  say  of  the  North,  I  mean  from  all  those  States 
against  which  the  South  has  been  so  recently  arrayed  in 
arms.  And,  sir,  I  am  not  using  a  mere  phrase  or  form  of 
speech,  but  speak  the  sincerest  sentiments  of  my  heart  when 
I  express  for  these  gentlemen  my  profound  respect,  admira- 
tion, esteem,  and  fraternal  regard.  The  attitude  of  manly 
courtesy  and  kindness  which  they  uniformly  maintained 
towards  their  professional  brothers  of  the  South  during  the 
unfortunate  struggle  through  which  our  country  has  passed 
could  not  have  failed,  I  am  sure,  to  excite  the  admiration  of 
all  who  had  opportunities  to  observe  it.     Avoiding  in  their 


—  32  — 

proceedings  when  they  held  entire  control  of  this  association, 
all  unpleasant  allusion  to  sectional  controversies,  whilst  they 
proved  themselves  true  to  their  accredited  duties,  they  were 
yet  ever  faithful  to  the  sympathies  and  courtesies  of  brother- 
hood. The  enlightened  patriotism  which  made  them  recog- 
nize the  virtue  taught  in  the  lines — 

"  '  Lives  there  a  heart  with  soul  so  dead 
Which  never  to  itself  hath  said, 
This  is  my  own,  my  native  land — ' 

also  taught  them  to  respect  that  still  dearer  sentiment  of 
the  heart  which  esteems  it  no  crime  to  cling  to  home 
before  country,  and  which  feels  that  there  is  an  allegiance 
higher  than  patriotism  due  to  firesides,  to  home-altars,  and 
to  household  gods.  Rising  above  the  angry  passions  of  the 
day  with  the  loftiest  instincts  of  human  nature,  the  flush  of 
victory  did  not  betray  thein  into  acts  calculated  to  embitter 
our  past  history  or  prolong  our  separation  in  the  future. 
But  with  a  kindness  and  cordiality  unmistakable,  they  in- 
vited us,  as  soon  as  the  bloody  sword  v/as  sheathed,  to 
resume  our  places  in  the  association,  and  with  a  grace  and 
wisdom  worthy  a  position  for  the  exercise  of  the  highest 
statesmanship,  have  ever  since  received  and  treated  us  as 
their  brothers  and  their  peers.  I  never  shall  forget  that,  in 
the  hour  of  our  deepest  calamity,  when  our  country,  rest- 
ing from  a  fratricidal  step,  was  still  lashed  by  the  fury  of 
sectional  hate,  when  a  victorious  army,  leaning  upon  the 
dripping  sword,  was  still  urged  to  acts  of  new  aggression 
by  an  embittered  and  maddened  populace,  the  first  voice  of 
fraternal  love  and  interest  that  reached  the  ears  of  the  South 
came  from  the  medical  men  of  the  North — members  of  this 
association,  and  in  their  associated  capacity.  Had  the  poli- 
ticians or  those  who  led  popular  opinion  all  over  the  two 
sections  been  moved  by  the  same  wise,  generous  and  manly 
spirit,  long  since  our  miserably  divided  country  had  been  of 
one  mind  and  one  heart,  as  I  trust  we  are  to-day.  In 
Scotland's  feudal  wars,  when  royal  James  was  heard  to  ex- 
claim that  he  would  give  his  fairest  earldom  to  bid  Clan 
Alpine's  chieftain,  so  late  his  arch-enemy,  and  then  a  mortally 


—  33  — 

wounded  prisoner  within  his  gates,  live,  that  monarch  con- 
quered, through  the  power  of  magnanimity  and  the  influent  e 
of  kindness,  a  victory  over  the  hearts  of  a  rel)ellious  peoi)le 
which  legions  of  Highland  blades  had  failed  to  achieve. 
And  in  thus  bringing  a  peace,  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name,  to 
his  worn  and  distracted  people,  he  brought  higher  honors  to 
Scotland's  king,  than  as  Snowdoun's  Knight  he  had  ever 
won  for  Roderic  I)hu.  And  now,  to  you,  our  brothers  of 
the  North,  I  would  say,  in  thus  illustrating  by  your  own  beau- 
tiful example  this  touching  incident  in  historical  romance,  it 
was  then  that  you  exhibited  a  wisdom  which,  for  the  good 
of  our  whole  country,  might  well  have  been  imitated  by 
your  statesmen.  It  was  then  that  you  showed  your  true 
nobility  of  soul ;  it  was  then  that  you  revealed  the  genuine 
instincts  and  impulses  of  a  true  manhood  ;  and,  gentlemen, 
permit  me  to  say  that  it  was  then  that  you  gave  us  the  right 
to  love  you  as  we  do  to-day."  The  references  to  the  war 
and  the  decoration  of  the  graves  of  both  Confederate  and 
Federal  armies  brought  the  moisture  to  the  eyes  of  almost 
every  one  present.  Dr.  Gross  was  then  loudly  called  for,  but, 
after  a. few  sentences,  was  so  overcome  with  emotion  that  he 
was  obliged  to  beg  to  be  excused.  All  present  were  much 
affected,  and  there  were  but  few  in  the  audience  whose  eyes 
did  not  glisten  Avith  tears. 

In  March,  1877,  Dr.  J.  Marion  Sims,  the  distinguished 
gynaecologist  and  founder  of  the  Woman's  Hospital  of  New 
York,  after  an  absence  of  twenty-five  years,  paid  a  visit 
to  Montgomery.  A  reception  committee  of  the  Medical  and 
Surgical  Society  of  Montgomery  welcomed  him  to  the  city, 
and  invited  him  to  a  banquet  given  in  honor  of  his  arrival. 
Dr.  Baldwin,  as  the  only  one  left  of  Dr.  Sims'  confreres  Avhen 
he  commenced  his  medical  career  in  that  city,  and  his  inti- 
mate associate  and  companion,  was  selected  by  the  society 
to  receive  the  distinguished  guest.  After  expressing  the  great 
pride  which  the  members  of  the  medical  profession  of  Ala- 
bama felt  in  the  renown  which  Dr.  Sims  had  won  since  leav- 
ing its  borders,  and  reminding  him  that  he  would  recognize 
but  few  whom  he  had  been  accustomed  to  meet  in  former 
years,  he  said : 
3 


—  34  — 

"  Sir,  we  claim  you  as  an  Alabamian.  South  Carolina  may 
assert  the  honor  of  having  rocked  the  cradle  of  your  infancy 
and  of  having  nurtured  your  boyhood,  but  it  was  here,  in 
Montgomery,  that  your  greatness  had  its  first  dawning.  It 
was  here  that  your  genius  found  its  earliest  expression,  and 
it  was  here  it  first  took  its  flight  and  asserted  its  claims  to  the 
applause  of  strangers.  It  was  here  that  your  sleepless  in- 
dustry, your  anxious  toil,  and  your  sublime  fidelity  to  pur- 
pose carved  out  those  surgical  devices  and  appliances  which 
have  made  your  name  so  justly  famous,  and  it  was  here  that 
you  first  reduced  those  inventions  to  that  practical  utility  in 
the  treatment  of  the  surgical  diseases  peculiar  to  females, 
which  has  not  only  challenged  the  admiration  of  the  great 
and  learned  in  your  own  profession,  but  has  also  won  the 
homage  of  the  crowned  heads  of  Europe,  and  made  your 
name  a  familiar  word  in  all  the  great  capitals  of  the  civilized 
world.  It  is  surely  no  small  honor  or  trifling  subject  for 
pride  and  congratulation  to  the  State  which  claims  to  be  the 
mother  of  your  early  manhood,  to  see  that  the  enlightened 
courts  of  the  old  world,  with  their  splendid  civilization,  have 
recognized  the  vast  resources  of  your  genius,  and  the  impor- 
tance of  those  great  discoveries  which  have  justified  them  in 
ranking  your  name  among  those  of  the  foremost  men  of  the 
age,  and  in  conferring  upon  you  honors,  titles  and  decorations 
due  only  to  those  who  by  their  achievements  in  science, 
literature,  art,  or  statesmanship  have  accomplished  some 
grand  purpose  in  life,  or  conferred  some  lasting  benefit  on 
mankind.  It  is,  therefore,  eminently  proper,  upon  your  visit 
to  the  home  of  your  youth,  after  an  absence  of  so  many  years, 
that  your  early  companions,  associates,  and  friends  of  the 
medical  profession,  should  desire  to  greet  you,  and  pay  you 
that  homage  which  is  so  justly  your  due.  We  wish,  sir,  to 
congratulate  you  upon  the  success  of  your  labors  and  the  use- 
fulness of  your  life,  as  well  as  upon  the  splendor  of  the  fame 
which  these  have  given  you.  Indeed,  sir,  to  those  who,  like 
myself,  are  familiar  with  the  difficulties  and  struggles  of  your 
early  professional  career,  the  grand  success  of  your  life  would 
seem  almost  as  a  romance,  were  it  not  for  the  solid  and 
lasting   benefits   it  has   conferred    upon   humanity.   ...  In 


—  35  — 

conclusion,  sir,  permit  me  to  say,  that  if  your  achievements 
within  the  domain  of  science  or  if  your  exalted  worth  as  a 
benefactor  of  your  race  should  hereafter  rear  the  monumental 
marble  to  perpetuate  your  name  as  a  great  physician,  still 
those  simple,  unaffected,  kind  and  genial  qualities  of  the 
heart,  so  peculiarly  your  own,  and  so  well  remembered  by 
the  companions  of  your  youth,  will  ever,  with  them,  con- 
stitute the  charm  and  glory  of  your  life  as  a  man." 

In  his  reply  Dr.  Sims,  in  referring  to  the  fact  that  Dr. 
Baldwin  and  he  were  the  only  survivors  of  the  men  of  1840, 
said  :  "  You  are  many  years  my  junior,  and  I  hope  and  pray 
that  you  may  long  live  to  advance  the  science  you  have  done 
so  much  to  improve,  and  dignify  the  profession  you  have 
done  so  much  to  adorn,  and  to  exert  among  your  brethren 
the  benign  influence  that  has  characterized  your  whole  life." 
In  January,  1S78,  Dr.  Baldwin  was  again  elected  President 
of  the  Montgomery  Medical  and  Surgical  Society,  and  de- 
livered a  masterly  address,  full  of  wisdom  and  thought  worthy 
of  the  profoundest  statesman. 

In  1870,  Dr.  Baldwin,  in  seeking  an  investment  for  part 
of  his  ample  fortune,  decided  to  employ  a  portion  in  bank- 
ing operations,  and  accordingly  inaugurated  and  organized 
the  First  National  Bank  of  Montgomery,  in  which  he  is  the 
largest  shareholder ;  in  compliment  to  his  great  business 
capacity,  and  in  consequence  of  the  universal  confidence  in 
his  personal  integrity  and  high  character,  he  was  elected 
President  by  the  shareholders,  and  the  high  position  held  by 
the  bank  is  convincing  proof  of  the  care  he  has  taken  of  their 
interests.  Although  he  does  not  now  seek  practice,  he  still 
attends  a  large  family  connection,  and  is  much  sought  after 
in  consultation.  He  became  distinguished  as  a  practitioner 
of  medicine  in  Montgomery  in  successful  competition  with 
such  eminent  men  as  Aimes,  Boling,  Marion  Sims,  Bozeman, 
and  Berney,  and  though  giving  no  special  attention  to 
surgery  has  performed  most  of  the  capital  operations,  and 
has  never  permitted  a  case  to  pass  out  of  his  office  without 
making  an  attempt  for  its  relief.  As  an  obstetrician,  he  holds 
the  highest  rank,  and  has  devoted  more  time  to  that  depart- 
ment than  to  any  other  of  his  profession  :   in  the  number  of 


-  3^- 

the  Richmond  and  Louisville  Medical  Journal  for  April,  1872, 
he  published  a  paper  on  "  Irrigations  of  Ice-water  as  a  Means 
of  Arresting  Hemorrhage  in  cases  of  Placenta  Prasvia,"  in  ^ 
which  he  reports  a  case  of  praevial  placenta,  where  both 
mother  and  child  were  saved  by  the  free  use  of  this  agent, 
and  strongly  recommends  its  use  in  similar  cases.  Among 
his  contributions  to  medical  literature  may  be  mentioned 
"  Remarks  on  Mustard  Poultices,  applied  extensively  to  the 
Surface,"  published  in  the  Western  Journal  of  Medicine  and 
Surgery,  January,  1845;  "Remarks  on  Trismus  or  Tetanus 
Nascentium,  and  on  its  identity  with  Traumatic  Tetanus  in  the 
Adult,"  America?!  Journal  of  the  Aledical  Sciences,  October, 
1846;  "Observations  on  the  Poisonous  Properties  of  the 
Sulphate  of  Quinine,"  American  Journal  of  the  Medical 
Sciences,  April,  1847;  "Observations  on  Spotted  Fever," 
American  Journal  of  the  Medical  Sciences,  October,  1866; 
"Case  of  Glanders  in  the  Human  Subject,"  read  before 
the  Montgomery  Medical  and  Surgical  Society,  1868;  and 
''  Irrigations  of  Ice-water  as  a  Means  of  Arresting  Hemor- 
rhage in  cases  of  Placenta  Prsevia,"  Richmond  and  Louis- 
ville Medical  Journal,  April,  1872.  He  is  Associate  Fellow 
of  the  College  of  Physicians  of  Philadelphia  ;  honorary  mem- 
ber of  the  Gynaecology  Society  of  Boston  ;  member  of  the 
American  Medical  Association,  of  which  he  was  President  in 
1869;  member  of  the  Medical  Association  of  the  State  of 
Alabama,  of  which  he  has  been  President ;  member  of  the 
Medical  and  Surgical  Society  of  Montgomery,  and  several 
times  its  President.  Dr.  Baldwin  was  married,  December 
7th,  1843,  to  Mary  Jane  Martin,  daughter  of  Judge  Abram 
Martin,  originally  of  South  Carolina,  and,  subsequently, 
Judge  of  the  Circuit  Court,  Montgomery.  This  excellent 
lady,  after  a  long  and  painful  illness,  breathed  her  last, 
September  i8th,  1878.  She  had  long  been  a  resident  of 
Montgomery,  her  honored  father  having  removed  to  that 
city  while  she  was  yet  in  the  bloom  of  early  womanhood. 
There  she  was  married,  there  her  children  were  born,  and 
there,  all  along  those  changing  years,  the  light  of  her  beau- 
tiful life,  devoted  to  duty  and  good  deeds,  shone  with  a 
sweetness   and    loveliness  that  can  never  fade  from  the  hearts 


—  37  — 

of  those  who  knew  and  hned  her.  In  all  the  land  there  was 
not  to  be  found  a  woman  truer  in  all  the  relations  of  life. 
She  never  grew  weary  of  well-doini;.  She  was  an  humble 
and  loving  Christian.  Indeed,  such  was  her  modesty,  such 
her  humility,  such  her  love  and  care  for  others,  she  little 
cared  for  self.  She  cared  not  for  the  applause  and  praise 
and  fashion  of  the  world.  Duty  and  love — love  of  husband 
and  children,  love  of  country,  love  of  friends,  love  of  her 
Saviour  and  His  church — these  were  the  holy  motives  that 
ceased  not  to  move  her  trusting  heart.  Since  the  death  of 
her  noble  soldier  boy,  who  at  the  head  of  his  men  received 
his  death-wound  at  the  bloody  battle  of  Franklin,  she  seemed 
to  walk  in  the  shadow^  of  a  great  grief.  And  yet  such  was 
the  light  that  shone  along  that  way  of  sorrow — light  from 
the  gates  of  glory — she  never  seemed  to  wish  to  move  out  of 
its  hallowed  path.  Indeed,  for  these  long  years  her  patii 
was  as  the  shining  light  that  shineth  more  and  more  unto 
the  perfect  day.  She  possessed  all  the  attributes  of  mind 
and  heart  that  enter  into  the  composition  of  the  highest 
type  of  female  excellence,  and  to  her  wise  counsel,  noble 
example,  and  appreciative  sympathy,  her  husband  is  indebted 
for  many  of  the  nobler  aims  of  his  career.  She  loved  her 
country,  and  her  devotion  to  the  Southern  cause  was  intense 
and  absorbing.  To  rhe  sick  and  wounded  soldiers  she  was 
a  tender  and  devoted  nurse,  and  many  of  the  heroes  in  gray 
confined  in  the  hospitals  received  at  her  hands  those  soothing 
ministrations  that  only  a  true  woman  can  bestow  upon  the 
sick  and  dying.  To  the  poor  she  extended  an  open  hand, 
and  no  object  of  charity  ever  sought  her  aid  in  vain,  or  went 
away  empty-handed.  Dr.  Baldwin  has  six  children  li\ing. 
Of  his  sons,  Marion  Augustus  Baldwin  is  a  young  lawyer 
and  an  accomplished  scholar;  and  Abram  Martin  Baldwin 
has  lately  left  the  Vanderbilt  University,  Nashville,  Tenn. 
One  daughter  is  the  wife  of  G.  W.  Craik,  son  of  the  Rev. 
James  Craik,  of  Louisville,  Ky.,  while  the  Misses  Mary  and 
Cecil,  with  the  youngest,  Alma,  a  child  of  ten.  reside  witli 
their  father. 

Montgomery   may   feel   justly   proud    of  the  long   line   of 
eminent   physicians  and   surgeons  who  have  honored  her  by 


-  38  - 

their  fame,  and  none  of  that  brilliant  band  have  attained 
greater  eminence  than  Dr.  W.  O.  Baldwin.  A  cotem- 
porary  of  Aimes,  J.  Marion  Sims,  Boling,  and  others 
scarcely  less  eminent,  he  has  outlived  all  but  the  distin- 
guished gynaecologist,  and  is  to-day  without  a  peer  as  the 
leading  physician  in  Alabama.  He  is  in  the  best  and  grand- 
est sense  a  representative  Southern  gentleman,  with  all  that 
name  implies  of  lofty  moral  character,  refined  and  cultivated 
mind,  spotless  integrity,  and  warm-hearted  generosity.  Emi- 
nently conservative  as  a  physician,  his  advice  is  sought  by  all 
sections  of  the  profession,  and  in  consultation  his  opinion 
is  deemed  indispensable.  As  an  obstetrician,  he  is  unrivalled 
in  the  South,  and  has  no  superior  in  this  country.  With 
strong  personal  magnetism,  remarkable  judgment,  and  ability 
to  control  his  fellow-men,  he  has  done  more  to  cement  the 
profession  of  his  native  State  and  to  draw  together  all  sec- 
tions of  the  Union  estranged  by  fratricidal  strife  than  any 
man  living.  Extensively  read  in  all  departments  of  litera- 
ture and  science,  and  with  a  cultivated  literary  taste,  his  well- 
balanced  mind  and  prudent  habits  have  preserved  his 
mental  and  physical  vigor  in  a  remarkable  degree,  and  his 
warm  heart  and  genial  social  qualities  have  endeared  him  to 
a  large  circle  of  friends  and  admirers  in  all  parts  of  the  Union. 


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